The Nets are one victory away from hitting double digits for this dismal season because their double-wide big men – which the team once had great hopes for, as a Twin Towers alignment that would make the league quiver in abject fear – actually played big together on Friday night.

Brook Lopez and Yi Jianlian both burned the Detroit Pistons with career-high scoring nights and shot a combined 26-for-33 from the field, as the Nets scored a 118-110 victory at Izod Center.

Nine victories in the books, one to go – which the Nets dare say could come as early as Saturday night, when they play the ninth-place Bulls at Chicago.

Sixers, hold your number.

“It’s good to see our work is paying off,” said Lopez, who had 37 points and 10 boards, the first 35-and-10 game for a Nets player since Sam Bowie in ’90-91. “And we’re going to keep working. The way we’re playing, it’s great that we play in Chicago. Maybe we can get another one.”

“It would make my life a lot easier,” agreed Devin Harris, who orchestrated a strong offensive night (season-best .571 team shooting) without scoring a field goal. “We got one more to not be tied with the record, but we’ve got a focus on one at a time.”

Lately, they’ve had success with focusing on one quarter at a time — hence, their first two-game winning streak of the season. It didn’t come easily, but it was earned: Detroit is in free fall, having lost seven straight, but the Nets didn’t cave after falling into a 23-10 deficit seven minutes into the game, and Yi didn’t cave after hearing boos twice in the first three minutes, or after spraining his left rotator cuff in the third period.

He claimed he didn’t hear the crowd. Maybe that’s why he finished with a career high 31 points.

“We really want to win some more games,” Yi said. “But we have to play hard every single game. We played good these last two games, we didn’t thave the same problems in the third quarter – a lot of the time the third quarter killed us.”

This time, it was their salvation.

Trailing 53-47 to start the second half, the Nets exploded for 33 points (14-for-23) in the third, with their starting frontcourt (Lopez, Yi, Jarvis Hayes) accounting for 31 of those points. Lopez was the game-changer: He scored on four straight possessions in every way imaginable to account for an 8-2 sprint that resulted in a 67-64 lead by the 4:41 mark.

And Hayes, starting at the three-spot while Williams got his wheels back, was almost a game-breaker. He nailed back-to-back 3-pointers to push the lead to 76-69. Yi finished off a nine-point quarter with his own 3-pointer to help the Nets keep their distance.

The unsung hero was Harris, who spotted bigs around the rim every time down. He had eight of his 12 assists in the third, which ended with the Nets holding an 80-77 edge.

With Terrence Williams and Keyon Dooling at the controls, the Nets scored on their first six possessions of the fourth, with Yi hitting three shots to push the lead to nine. The lead topped out at 107-95, after Lopez jammed home a follow of an Yi miss in transition with 2:47 left, and the only issue remaining was how high the bigs’ totals would go.

They nearly coughed it up, however: Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton both drilled 3-pointers to make it a six-point game by the 1:40 mark, and the Nets committed three turnovers in the next four trips – including a brutal eight-second violation with 47.6 ticks left and Detroit within 109-105.

But Keyon Dooling made the game’s biggest play, poking out Rodney Stuckey’s dribble as he turned the corner at the right baseline, leading to a steal and two foul shots for Williams that iced it with 41.7 seconds left.

“We hadn’t had a lot of experience closing out games with the lead,” Dooling said.
But they made the one play they had to make, and now they have a chance to put Philly in their rearview mirror.

“I think we’re upbeat, with how close (to 10) we are,” Williams said. “Guys want to win, so they’ve got to bring out all stops and play defense. If we play defense, it’ll give us a chance on offense.”